The Tories weren't elected to spy on us

Three days before the May 2 federal election when Stephen Harper and his Tories won a majority, this newspaper endorsed him and his party to govern Canada.

We did that for two reasons: a belief, after too many years of ineffective minority governments, that Harper was the only leader capable of forming a majority, and a view that the Harper team would best manage Canada's economy and federal spending. Many Canadian voters agreed.

But we now join what should become an even larger (and hopefully louder) majority of Canadians in denouncing and opposing the Tories' so-called "lawful-access" legislation that will give police unprecedented access to the personal information of Internet users — names, addresses, phone numbers and online ID numbers — without court oversight.

We are also disgusted — a strong word, but accurate — at Public Safety Minister Vic Toews's statement that those who oppose his police-state laws are supporters of pedophiles and child-pornographers. That's an appalling thing for Toews to say about his fellow Canadians and he should apologize.

As well, both Canada's police chiefs and justice department officials say the invasive, totalitarian new powers are not needed to catch bad guys. The Tories should axe the "lawful-access" bill; we didn't elect them to spy on us.

Original Article
Source: the province 
Author: editorial